SECONDARY TEACHERS AND EARLY RETIREMENT: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING EARLY RETIREMENT DECISIONS

Abstract

Early retirement in Malaysia is retirement that occurred before the age of 60 years old. The numbers of early retirement among teachers in Malaysia kept increasing year by year starts with 2775 in 2015 and with the latest figure is 4360 in 2021. This trend is very worrying as it will affect national education plan. This study investigated factors that contributes toward intention to early retirement among secondary school teachers in Kedah. This study adopts qualitative cross-sectional study using semi-structured interviews. Seven (7) secondary school teachers were selected to participate in the interviews. The information of teachers is obtained with the assistance of Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah (PPD). It was found that high volume of workload, lack of technology skills, colleague relationships and financial condition as well were the factors that drive early retirement intention among teachers in Kedah. Teachers felt overworked and overburdened with numerous non-teaching work-related tasks, which made them want to retire early as a solution to their difficulties.